This front page is about as persuasive as that weak twitter thread linked to upthread, which tried to do the same thing.
Starting off with the thing about 48% of Jews seriously considering emigrating is Phil Collins stuff, without any context or comparison. There is some stuff included in the paragraphs after that which clearly doesn’t paint Corbyn in the greatest light. Fair enough. But as a person looking at this ‘from the outside in’ (i.e. with no known Jewish heritage or close acquaintances), it’s kinda difficult to accept it as being the definitive gotcha it’s apparently being presented as. Which is not to say that Corbyn has been anything other than fully capable of being quite shit on this matter in terms of some of his words and actions and how they’re inevitably going to be received by many Jewish people.
But. Outright proclamations of him being an antisemite, and that a government under him would be some sort of threshold for the ramping up of persecution of Jewish people in the UK? It’s just so difficult to buy into this “deep fear” thing. Especially in the context of our current gov, compared to the overall presentation that Labour has set out under Corbyn. Miliband was the one with the racist mugs and stone monolith.
Which isn’t a defence of Labour by pointing the finger at the a Tories. It’s an acknowledgement of unavoidable context. And yet. The accusations persist.
So what do I know? Probably nothing. And why should anyone listen to my opinion? They probably shouldn’t. Which is why this is only the second time I can ever recall posting about antisemitism. Because this issue is so difficult to get your (my) teeth into. To be blunt, as i’ve said, no known Jewish heritage or close acquaintances. I can’t be the only one in this position - I’m not some head-in-the-sand angry person, or a happily ignorant bimpkin? But I’m still trying to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, and there have been some really good posts on here to help with that. Not everyone will be doing that, though. I reckon if you ask [averagepersononthestreet], they’ll struggle to tell you the difference between a synagogue and a gurdwara, or perhaps even be able to distinguish between what a Torah and a Niqab is. (I just had to check on Torah, there.)
Sorry for the rambly post. Don’t know what my key point is here, except perhaps to say that I find this antisemitism thing quite impenetrable because so much (but by no means all) of the ‘evidence’ for it (when presented in the manner of that JC front page) seems, to me, to be summaries of outcomes rather than examples of wrongdoing. And it’s always so difficult to untangle the political/cultural angle when it’s so tightly bound to the (party) political discussion.
Right, that’s my lot. I’m standing down on this issue and will keep on reading the posts of others who are infinitely more informed than me on the matter, in the hope that I’ll keep on learning. 
